


just like you always do

by secretinternetbox



Category: Batman - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - 1940s, Alternate Universe - World War II, Canon-Typical Violence, Gen, M/M, Period-Typical Homophobia, Songfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-17
Updated: 2020-02-17
Packaged: 2021-02-28 01:14:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,435
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22765309
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/secretinternetbox/pseuds/secretinternetbox
Summary: Sometimes, Jason hated that Bruce had officially adopted all of them.He’d much rather serve alongside Richard and Timothy instead of being delegated to separate battalions courtesy of the Sole Survivor Policy.'Then again,' he thought with a wicked smirk, 'if Timothy was here, I wouldn’t be able to pay attention to the regiment lines, let alone the damn war.'
Relationships: Tim Drake/Jason Todd
Comments: 4
Kudos: 122





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> i didn't realize i still had this fic saved so i'm tossing it back up again. i think it was first posted around 2012. sorry about the formatting

“It’s our last night, just come out with me. A little dancing with our friends might help you de-stress a bit.”

Jason looked up at Dick with a bewildered look. Tim didn’t even bother lifting up his head from Jason’s lap. They had been curled up together for the better part of the afternoon into the evening and probably weren’t planning on moving until they had to leave in order to ship out the following morning. No one in the house needed a reminder that it was their last night.

Bruce Wayne’s three eldest sons were all going to war.

Dick kept pacing the library; he couldn’t stand still. The youngest, Damian, watched the exchange from his spot leaning against the wall.

“Dick, I’m not leaving the manor tonight.” Jason said firmly.

“Bruce and Alfred have already gone to bed.” Dick tried to reason with them. His brothers had been depressed for days, it had sunk in that they were all going to war, leaving half of their family.

Dick had known early on that he was going to be part of the RAF. He was one of the best fliers in the country. How could he not be drafted into the elite branch? It was in his blood.

Jason had been drafted into the army. No one was entirely shocked but it hadn’t stopped everyone’s faces from going pale when the letter arrived.

Tim, though…Tim was a college student. Or had been a college student. They needed smart code breakers and Tim was the best cryptologist student in the country. His professor had given up that information freely and now Tim was headed over to god-knows-where in order to research and break German codes.

“We could go to one of the dancing clubs or even a bar, all of us. Kory and Roy and Bart and Kon.”

“Dick. Richard. We just want to stay here.”

“You could dance as brothers, it wouldn’t make a difference to anyone.”

“-Tt- Anyone who looks at them and sees only brothers is a fool.” Damian huffed and attempted to cross the room.

“Why, brat, I didn’t realize you cared.” Jason reached out a hand and snatched Damian, pulling him onto the couch for a side hug. Damian attempted a punch at his side but in his freedom, he was snatched up by Dick into a hug.

“Fine but I’m at least going to put on some music. Your favorite, Tim.” Dick let loose an easy smile and was rewarded with the tiniest one in return from Tim, finally raising his eyes to look up at his older brother.

Glenn Miller’s _In the Mood_ burst forth from the record player, quiet enough not to wake their guardians but loud enough that Tim only had to give Jason one look. That single smile was all it took for Jason to offer his hand to Tim and lift both of them off the couch. Dick smiled at them as Jason’s hand fell upon Tim’s waist and on their opposite hands, their fingers intertwined.

Dick tried and failed to coax Damian into dancing with him. Damian stiffened his body more than usual and finally, _finally,_ Dick stopped trying to make everything okay. He gave Damian a sad smile and tucked a piece of hair behind his brother’s ear.

And as _In the Mood_ faded into _Moonlight Serenade_ , Jason tugged Tim closer to him, fluidly switching into a slower dance where they didn’t have to push each other away. Dick still refused to let go of Damian so, instead, he lifted him into his arms because even though Damian was big for ten years old, he wasn’t big enough not to be picked up by his older brother.

When _Moonlight Serenade_ ’s notes grew softer and the record ended, Damian was the only one who noticed their father in the doorway. Dick had set him on the couch and he allowed his eldest brother to tightly hold onto his hand. Jason and Tim were still swaying in the middle of the room, even with no tempo from the record player to guide them.

As Jason started singing softly to Timothy, Damian shut his eyes tightly, trying to stop them from watering. He leaned against Dick and just listened to Jason’s steady voice wavering as he sang through one of Vera Lynn’s newest songs.

_We’ll meet again_

_Don’t know where_

_Don’t know when_

_But I know we’ll meet again some sunny day_


	2. Chapter 2

One of the many problems with having sons during wartime was having them drafted. However, the Waynes did not expect for three sons to be shipped off on the same morning from different parts of the city.

————————

_“Alfred, I’m glad you’re the one here with me.”_

_“Master Timothy, you will forever be my grandson, no matter what the papers or any medical reports say.”_

_“I know, Alfred. Thank you.” Tim remembers being terrified when he stumbled into the manor. Alfred was the first person to make him feel as though he was truly home there._

_“Be safe, no matter where they send you.” Tim’s assignment is so top secret that even he doesn’t know where his bus is headed._

_“I’ll try my best, Alfred.”_

_“I know you will, Timothy.”_

————————

It wasn’t that Tim hated the military. It’s just that he wasn’t meant to be in it. He was originally supposed to just be stationed in secret bases in order to decode confidential information. However, when that information was even too sensitive to be transferred across the oceans, Tim was sent to combat training and outfitted for war. He was told to be prepared for all possibilities.

One event that he never prepared for, however, was for Jason’s letters to stop arriving.

————————

_“I do not wish for you to go.” Damian looked down. He didn’t want to see Richard in his uniform, preparing to go and fly planes for a war that had nothing to do with Damian but everything to do with his adopted country._

_“I’ll come back, little D. I promise.”_

_“Do not make promises for events that you can not control.”_

_“Damian…” Dick said softly. He reached down and used two fingers under Damian’s chin to tilt up his brother’s face. “I love you, little brother. And I promise to try my hardest to come home to you and Bruce and Alfred and Jason and Timothy.” Dick counted out each name._

_At the mention of his other brothers, Damian went pale._

_“Jason is strong and won’t take crap from anyone. Tim is intelligent beyond belief. They’ll be fine. Just like me.”_

_“Jason is too hot headed for his own good. And Timothy is too intelligent. He will be in demand. They will not be safe. Not without you.”_

_Dick knew what Damian wasn’t saying: ‘You’re their older brother. You’ve always protected them. Why aren’t you doing that now?’_

_Dick heard the unspoken words and just knelt down in front of his little brother. “Take care of Pops and Alfred, okay? I’ll write you whenever I’m able and I fully expect letters in return.”_

————————

Dick ended up hearing from Damian more than he was abroad than when they lived down the hall from each other. Whether it was about his new friend, Colin, or the secret cat that he was keeping in Dick’s room (that Damian swore Alfred didn’t know about but Dick didn’t have the heart to tell his little brother that their grandfather knew everything), Damian wrote as though every word would encourage Dick in his dog fights. And they did.

————————

_“You should have gone with Tim. Or Dick.”_

_“I came to see you off, Jason. Please,” There was a pained look on Bruce’s face, “Jason.”_

_“Okay. All right…dad.”_

_“Just know that I’m proud of you.”_

_Jason choked off a sob and buried his face in Bruce’s neck. “Take care of them, please.”_

_“I can’t protect you boys when you’re in war.” Bruce said in a near whisper, as though the truth of those words pained him to say aloud._

_“I don’t mean now. I mean, when they come back.”_

_“Jason.” Bruce looked shocked and almost angry. He stood a little taller and grabbed his son again in a tight hug. “No, I refuse. You come back and take care of them yourself.”_

————————

Jason wasn’t sure how many days he had been in the cell or how long ago he had been captured. Time didn’t really have an effect of him behind the iron bars. These men thought he had information but he wasn’t sure why. He could only misdirect them so much in sarcastic English before they really got furious at him.

Jason just gave an unhinged grin as another kick came to his teeth. He spat out blood and instead of giving his captors what they wanted to hear, he let loose with what he wanted to hear. And maybe if he sang loud enough, Timothy could hear him, even across oceans.

_Keep smiling through_

_Just like you always do_

_Till the blue skies chase those dark clouds, far away_


	3. Chapter 3

Three years pass by in a near instant for Timothy. He saw code after code and battle after battle. His problem was when he reached the three year mark and one month, there’s no response from Jason. They had written each other, unfailingly, with as many details as they could (which wasn’t a lot at all). Tim had gotten used to writing sparse information (almost but not quite a code between the two of them) so no one would be suspicious of two men (not to mention brothers) penning heartfelt letters to one another.

_“Last one for the day, Drake.” His commanding officer dropped off a code where Tim was huddled by himself, just an enigma machine, a tattered notebook, and a pencil that had become a nearly a stub only a few hours prior._

_Tim didn’t bother looking at the clock. There was no “off shift” in the army. Not during wartime. He had been woken up in the middle of the night plenty of times in order to examine cryptic messages that had to be sent immediately overseas._

_A double ‘sierra’ showed up in Tim’s code translation and he stared at it for a full minute. Double ‘sierras’ never showed up. He couldn’t have gotten that distracted thinking about Jason that he made an error._

_Right?_

_He double and triple checked, finally satisfied with his own calculations but still feeling cautious about the ‘sierra-sierra’ that showed up in the middle of the code. They never showed up._

_None of Dick’s letters mentioned Jason but that wasn’t too surprising. Dick’s letters focused more on what he wanted to ask Tim and anecdotes about the family (As though Tim hadn’t heard from them himself. Damian’s letters were nearly human enough towards Tim to be considered heartfelt)._

_Now Tim was back to thinking about Jason and his family. It would most likely be a common situation until he had word of news (Good, bad, any)._

—————————

Tim was the last to arrive at the manor when the war ends. Bruce opened the door and just sighed in happy relief before picking up Tim in a hug that lifted him off the ground. _(Dad, strong, safe, still not Jason)_

“Can none of my sons properly write to tell us when they are arriving? Or must it always be a surprise?”

Sons?

_Sons?_

“Jason?” Tim could have sworn that his heart stopped.

Bruce stepped aside just as Jason, _Tim’s Jason_ , came barreling through the front hallway, closely followed by Damian and Dick.

Jason’s hair was long and scraggly but clean. He had lost so much weight and had a large bruise covered his jaw. More importantly, _most importantly_ , he was Tim’s and whole. As whole as any of them could be.

—————————

_“Todd?”_

_Jason didn’t bother looking up. It was probably a hallucination again. At least this time, It wasn’t Tim or Dick saving him. Those hallucinations hurt the worst. More than the burnt flesh and are purpled bruises._

_“We’re at location alpha-seven-foxtrot-whiskey-papa-sierra-sierra…”_

_Jason tuned out the rest of the voices._

_He didn’t need to hear the rendezvous codes._

_He just wanted to go home._

_He just wanted Tim._

—————————

“You didn’t write for a whole six months. I thought you were dead.” Tim said, dazed. He kept running his fingers through the hair that fell around Jason’s nape. His other arm was wrapped tightly around Jason’s waist; they couldn’t get much closer.

“Legally, he was dead. They couldn’t find him. He showed up two days ago.” Dick said with a mixture of pride and relief in his voice. His hand rested on Jason’s shoulder. The brothers hadn’t truly left each other out of their sight since returning to the manor.

“Being dead isn’t all it’s cracked up to be so I decided to come back.” Jason’s voice wavered towards the end of his terrible joke and leaned his forehead against Tim’s, hoping he doesn’t start crying because Jason already knew that all the brothers would be spending the night in the library again. If they started crying now, they wouldn’t stop for a full day. Jason’s back is still twitching from when he and Dick set up camp there two nights prior when Jason finally returned home.

—————————

It was a night of quiet celebration at Wayne manor now that all the sons had returned. The library was full of blankets and pillows, dragged down from the upper bedrooms as though they were children again, making forts to hide from each other.

Dick was snoring, unhindered by Damian, thirteen now, all growth spurts and emerging muscles, who was pinning his older brother to the ground just as he had been attempting to do since he was a mere toddler.

Even Bruce stayed well into the night, only leaving when Alfred tapped him on the shoulder and gave a pointed look towards Jason and Tim. They were both awake and had claimed the couch, but hadn’t done much talking unless it was a direct question or towards each other.

Bruce paused at the steps and gave a final glance towards his sons. All his sons, safe and under his roof again. A smile came over his face as Jason lifted Tim up off the couch as they had done three and a half years prior and began to sway him to invisible music, back and forth in the middle of the room.

_Two sleepy people by dawn’s early light_

_And too much in love to say goodnight_

_Two sleepy people with nothing to say_

_And too much in love to break away_


End file.
